Journal profile · PSYCHOLOGY, DEVELOPMENTAL
Infant Mental Health Journal
ISSN 0163-9641 · eISSN 1097-0355 · Wiley-Blackwell
Infant Mental Health Journal: CAS Zone 3 · Psychology (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 1.9; hybrid open access; APC about USD 3,090; median 274 days to acceptance (89 articles, last 24 months); acceptance rate 41% (journal website); 90 articles in 2025; indexed in SSCI and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Infant Mental Health Journal is published by Wiley-Blackwell and is in Zone 3 of Psychology in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development, Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum and Attachment and Relationship Dynamics, together about 43.4% of its articles. Its main subfields are Clinical Psychology. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Infant Mental Health Journal: Infancy and Early Childhood (IMHJ) is the official publication of the World Association for Infant Mental Health (WAIMH) and the Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health (MI-AIMH) and is copyrighted by MI-AIMH.Infant and early childhood mental health refers to the optimal social and emotional development of infants, toddlers and very young children in early relational contexts such as attachment relationships, early relationship development, parenting and family systems, caregiving/early childhood environments, communities and cultures. The journal also places an emphasis on the ways in which applied research informs clinical and applied practice, policy, and the field of infant and early childhood mental health. While IMHJ leans heavily toward work in infancy and toddlerhood, the journal also publishes research examining preschoolers’ social-emotional development in relational contexts, such as work involving early childhood mental health consultation. Papers may focus on infant, toddler, or preschooler outcomes, focus on adult (e.g., parent, caregiver, educator, clinician) outcomes, or both adult and child outcomes. All work published in IMHJ reflects the robust use of infant and early childhood mental health perspectives. Infant Mental Health Journal: Infancy and Early Childhood publishes primarily peer-reviewed research articles, including program evaluations. Rigorous review papers and theoretical/conceptual papers and brief reports (e.g., novel pilot studies) that focus on early social and emotional development and characteristics that influence social-emotional development from relationship-based perspectives are also welcomed. Examples of such influences include attachment relationships, early relationship development, caregiver-infant interactions, infant and early childhood mental health services, contextual and cultural influences on infant/toddler/child and family development, including parental/caregiver psychosocial characteristics and attachment history, prenatal experiences, and biological characteristics in interaction with relational environments that promote optimal social-emotional development or place it at higher risk. Research published in IMHJ focuses on the prenatal-age 5 period and employs relationship-based perspectives in key research questions and interpretation and implications of findings.IMHJ is dedicated to an interdisciplinary approach to the optimal development of infants, toddlers, very
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): PSYCHOLOGY, DEVELOPMENTAL
Editor-in-chief Ann M. StacksPublisher website
Editorial board by country: none in mainland China; most named United States 14, United Kingdom 4, Italy 3, Canada 3, Australia 3 (38 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional DevelopmentPsychology22.3%
- Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and PostpartumMedicine11.6%
- Attachment and Relationship DynamicsPsychology9.5%
- Family and Disability Support ResearchPsychology6.6%
- Infant Development and Preterm CareMedicine6.3%
- Early Childhood Education and DevelopmentSocial Sciences5.8%
- Child Abuse and TraumaPsychology5.7%
- Infant Health and DevelopmentHealth Professions5.4%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Psychology Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Psychology | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Psychology, Developmental | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Psychology Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Psychology | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Psychology, Developmental | Zone 3 |
Top journal: noReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Psychology Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Psychology | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Psychology, Developmental | Zone 3 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
Database indexing
SSCIScopusLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Indexing the journal's website claims
Web of ScienceMEDLINEPubMedEmbasePsycINFOCINAHLCurrent ContentsPublisher website
Other: EBSCO, ProQuest
As the journal's website lists them, not checked against each database; for Web of Science editions the records above apply.
Editions, and major and minor categories, are shown separately and never merged into one zone; check which edition your institution uses before you submit or report.
Metrics
Impact metrics and publication volume
Impact
- Impact factor
- 1.9LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher)
- 2Publisher website ·
- Impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 2Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 4.7LetPub ·
- CiteScore (publisher)
- 4.7Publisher website ·
- CiteScore (publisher) 2025
- 4.7Publisher website ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 0.95LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 1.13LetPub ·
- h-index
- 116OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 1,193OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 1.64OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 10%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 47.83%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 76LetPub ·
- Articles per year (publisher) 2025
- 76Publisher website ·
- Downloads per year (publisher) 2025
- 255,184Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 2,525 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 53 | 35 | 10 |
| 2025 | 90 | 64 | 112 |
| 2024 | 63 | 45 | 215 |
| 2023 | 68 | 53 | 452 |
| 2022 | 76 | 39 | 751 |
| 2021 | 64 | 35 | 1,105 |
Sources count differently and were observed at different times, so each source's own value is kept; "publisher" marks figures from the journal's website.
Review & acceptance
Review time and acceptance
Review time from article dates manuscript dates registered with Crossref · to
274 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 204 days – 361 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 31 days (89 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 313 days
- Sample
- 89 articles with submission and acceptance dates (150 in the window); the latest was accepted on
Only articles that were accepted and published are counted, not the time spent on rejected manuscripts, so this usually runs longer than a publisher's "time to first decision".
Other sources
- Acceptance rate (publisher)
- 41%Publisher website ·
- Acceptance rate (publisher) 2025
- 41%Publisher website ·
- Submission to first decision
- 47 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to first decision 2025
- 47 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to acceptance 2025
- 263 daysPublisher website ·
- Acceptance to publication 2025
- 35 daysPublisher website ·
- Peer review
- Double anonymous peer reviewPublisher website
Community reports come from authors' own submissions (confidence 0.5) and are not a promise from the journal; for publisher figures, the journal's own definitions apply.
Fees & open access
APC and open-access policy
Hybrid open accessLetPub
A subscription journal in which authors can pay to publish their article open access.
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAlex | USD 3,090 / EUR 2,600 / GBP 2,010 | — | — |
A hybrid journal charges the APC only when the author chooses open access; publishing under the subscription model is usually free.
The journal's website is authoritative for fees; sources were observed at different times and each keeps its own value, without averaging.
Submission
Article types and submission policies (journal website)
What to prepare6 items from the author guidelines
- Abstract
- ≤ 200 words
- Manuscript length
- ≤ 10,000 words
- Reference style
- APA
- Templates
- Word
- First submission
- Free format: the journal's layout is not required
- Highlights
- Required
Article types accepted8, with length limits
- brief reportOriginal Papers are reports of new research, empirical findings or conceptual analyses that make a significant contribution to knowledge, to the extant literatu…main text ≤ 5,000 words
- brief reportsBrief Reports are no more than 5,000 words, inclusive of references but not tables or figures, and are appropriate for preliminary findings of cutting-edge pilo…Length not stated
- literature reviewOriginal Papers are reports of new research, empirical findings or conceptual analyses that make a significant contribution to knowledge, to the extant literatu…Length not stated
- original paperOriginal Papers are reports of new research, empirical findings or conceptual analyses that make a significant contribution to knowledge, to the extant literatu…Length not stated
- original papersOriginal Papers are reports of new research, empirical findings or conceptual analyses that make a significant contribution to knowledge, to the extant literatu…Length not stated
- review articleOriginal Papers are reports of new research, empirical findings or conceptual analyses that make a significant contribution to knowledge, to the extant literatu…Length not stated
- review articlesReview Articles reflect critical, thorough literature reviews or theoretical/conceptual articles that synthesize and critique the research literature to date or…Length not stated
- special collections/special sectionsSpecial Collections/Special Sections are collections of three to five manuscripts on a topic highly relevant to the field of infant and early childhood mental h…Length not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAuthorship, Conflicts of interest, Data availability, License & copyright, Peer review
- Authorship Authorship/Co-Authorship Details
All listed authors should have contributed to the manuscript substantially and have agreed to the final submitted version. Review editorial standards and scroll down for a description of authorship criteria.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Conflicts of interest Conflict of Interest Statement
On the title page, please define any conflicts of interest that may be present related to the research or dissemination of the research in IMHJ.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Data availability Data Sharing and Data Availability
Infant Mental Health Journal: Infancy and Early Childhood recognizes the many benefits of archiving data for scientific progress. Archived data provides an indispensable resource for the scientific community, making possible future replications and secondary analyses, in addition to the importance of verifying the dependability of published research findings.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- License & copyright Reproduction of Copyright Material
If excerpts from copyrighted works owned by third parties are included, credit must be shown in the contribution. It is your responsibility to also obtain written permission for reproduction from the copyright owners. For more information visit Wiley’s Copyright Terms & Conditions FAQ.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review 2. Submission and Peer Review Process
Once the submission materials have been prepared in accordance with the Author Guidelines, manuscripts should be submitted online at https://authors.wiley.com/journal/IMHJ. Author SupportFor technical help with the submission system, please review Wiley’s Research Exchange Author Help Documents or contact submissionhelp@wiley.com. Before papers can be considered for peer review, they are screened …
Source ↗Publisher website ·
Excerpts are quoted from the journal's website; "model summary" lines are written by Workers AI and checked against the text. The journal's website is authoritative.
Profile
Publication details and official links
- Publisher
- Wiley-Blackwell
- ISSN
- 0163-9641
- Electronic ISSN
- 1097-0355
- Latest issue on the website
- Volume 47, Issue 5 (September 2026)
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗OpenAlex
- Submission system ↗Publisher website
- Special issues ↗Publisher website
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Infant Mental Health Journal
What CAS zone is Infant Mental Health Journal in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Infant Mental Health Journal is in Zone 3 of Psychology, and in Zone 4 of the minor category Psychology, Developmental. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 3 of Psychology. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of Infant Mental Health Journal?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 1.9; CiteScore 4.7, h-index 116.
How long does peer review take at Infant Mental Health Journal?
Based on the dates recorded on 89 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 274 days (interquartile range 204–361 days); the journal's website gives an acceptance rate of 41% (2025). Article statistics cover accepted papers only, publisher figures follow the journal's own definitions, and community reports come from authors' own submissions; none is a promise from the journal.
What are the manuscript requirements of Infant Mental Health Journal?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Abstract: ≤ 200 words; Manuscript length: ≤ 10,000 words; Reference style: APA; Templates: Word; First submission: Free format: the journal's layout is not required; Highlights: Required. A model extracted these from the author guidelines and each was checked against the text; check the latest version on the journal's website before submitting.
Where are the editorial board members of Infant Mental Health Journal based?
Of the 38 board members whose country the journal's board page names, none are in mainland China; the countries named most often are United States (14), United Kingdom (4) and Italy (3). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index Infant Mental Health Journal?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Infant Mental Health Journal is indexed in SSCI and Scopus. The journal's website also lists Web of Science, MEDLINE, PubMed, Embase, PsycINFO, CINAHL and Current Contents; that list has not been checked against each database.
Is Infant Mental Health Journal open access, and what is the APC?
Infant Mental Health Journal is a hybrid journal. For open-access publication: APC about USD 3,090.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, Publisher website, OpenAlex; every figure is tagged with its source and the date it was observed, and conflicting values are kept per source. LetPub source page: view ↗ (archived 2026-08-25). Last updated: .